They say a host should spend a night in the guest room to see how it feels. Businesses ought to do the same thing.
The other day, I went to my doctor’s, and realized that someone’s been thinking about customer experience. I was planning to switch PCPs, but the practice won me back with excellence in operations and customer intimacy.
Surveys, focus groups and social listening help to assess the customer experience – but really walking in customers’ footsteps fosters all sorts of ideas beyond improvements to core service delivery.
In this case, the formula is actually pretty simple:
- Respect my time. The receptionist talked and moved fast at check-in. And I was seen early because I had shown up 15 minutes before my appointment. In customer marketing: Make emails short and clear. Don’t stretch out the byline to 1200 words or a whitepaper to seven pages. Get to the point, in the first paragraph.
- Know my history with you. My doc followed up on specific previous issues (eClinicalWorks EMR in action). For marketers, nurture existing customers in an automated way – but invest in great database administration. Get the communications right.
- Make it easy to buy more. They pre-registered me for their new patient portal and told me what to expect – in about two tight sentences, (I signed up when I got home) because I just had to click a button. Selling additional products, solutions or modules should be similar – when the marketing can show how it’ll enhance what I already have and require relatively little effort on my part.
The real lesson: It goes far beyond doctors. Any industry afflicted by lousy customer expectations can reap a windfall. Cable, anyone?Airlines? Telecom?
Customer experience, as a profession, should come of age within the coming decade with help from organizations like the CXPA. Marketers have a lot to contribute in the meantime.
